Xsolla Founder Shurick Agapitov Releases Once Upon Tomorrow Fortnite Island: A Groundbreaking Immersive Experience That Brings the Novel's Universe to Life

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 12, 2024--

Shurick Agapitov, founder of Xsolla and visionary in the gaming industry, proudly announces the Once Upon Tomorrow Fortnite Island release. This immersive Fortnite Creative map transports players into the rich narrative world of his novel. The innovative experience, developed in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), masterfully combines high-speed parkour challenges with deep thematic elements from Once Upon Tomorrow, inviting players to test their skills while journeying through a visually captivating landscape that embodies the resilience and adventure of the book’s characters.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241212923969/en/

“Once Upon Tomorrow in Fortnite Creative is our way of expanding the reach and depth of the novel, offering players an interactive journey that challenges both their skills and their understanding of the story’s themes,” said Shurick Agapitov, Founder of Xsolla. “We designed this map to captivate players who crave a good challenge and to immerse them in a world that’s visually rich and deeply inspired by the book. It’s an adventure that leverages UEFN’s technical strengths to elevate storytelling in Fortnite in a way that truly transforms the game experience.”

Designed to push the boundaries of Fortnite Creative, Once Upon Tomorrow offers players a dynamic, narrative-driven parkour adventure set within a meticulously crafted environment inspired by Agapitov’s book and vision. Each course presents a series of agility-based challenges that require players to sprint, leap, and climb with precision and speed, all while immersed in a world filled with visual cues that echo the themes of endurance and discovery central to the book. Agapitov has created an experience beyond traditional parkour maps by weaving gameplay with storytelling, delivering both exhilarating gameplay and a meaningful connection to the novel’s world.

Once Upon Tomorrow is a project within Fortnite Creative, seamlessly blending high-stakes parkour with narrative depth. The map is a testament to what can be achieved using UEFN, offering an engaging and multi-layered experience that appeals to Fortnite’s extensive player base and fans of novel and narrative-rich gaming experiences. Every aspect of the map—from its intense gameplay mechanics to its immersive, atmospheric design—has been crafted to set a new standard in Fortnite Creative.

For more information about Once Upon Tomorrow and its immersive Fortnite Creative experience, please visit xsolla.blog/outf

About Shurick Agapitov

Shurick Agapitov is the visionary founder of Xsolla, a globally recognized leader in video game commerce. Known for his contributions to gaming, Web3, and the metaverse, Agapitov has driven Xsolla to become a vital resource for game developers and publishers worldwide. His dedication to enhancing digital and interactive experiences is reflected in the launch of Once Upon Tomorrow, extending his vision beyond the page to the dynamic world of Fortnite Creative.

About Xsolla

Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue, and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in London, Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Raleigh, Tokyo, Montreal, and cities around the world, Xsolla supports leading gaming partners such as Valve, Twitch, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, among others.

For additional information and to learn more, please visit xsolla.com

(Graphic: Xsolla)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale costs in the United States picked up sharply last month, signaling that price pressures are still evident in the economy even though inflation has tumbled from the peak levels it hit more than two years ago.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.4% last month from October, up from 0.3% the month before. Measured from 12 months earlier, wholesale prices climbed 3% in November, the sharpest year-over-year rise since February 2023.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices rose 0.2% from October and 3.4% from November 2023.

Higher food prices pushed up the November wholesale inflation reading, which came in hotter than economists had expected. Surging prices of fruits, vegetables and eggs drove wholesale food costs up 3.1% from October. They had been unchanged the month before.

The wholesale price report comes a day after the government reported that consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier, up from an annual gain of 2.6% in October. The increase, fueled by pricier used cars, hotel rooms and groceries, showed that elevated inflation has yet to be fully tamed.

Inflation in consumer prices has plummeted from a four-decade high 9.1% in June 2022. Yet despite having reached relatively low levels, it has so far remained persistently above the Fed’s 2% target.

Despite the modest upticks in inflation last month, the Federal Reserve is poised to cut its benchmark interest rate next week for a third consecutive time. In 2022 and 2023, the Fed raised its key short-term rate 11 times — to a two-decade high — in a drive to reverse an inflationary surge that followed the economy's unexpectedly strong recovery from the COVID-19 recession. The steady cooling of inflation led the central bank, starting in the fall, to begin reversing that move.

In September, the Fed slashed its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by a sizable half-point. It followed that move with a quarter-point rate cut in November. Those cuts lowered the central bank’s key rate to 4.6%, down from a four-decade high of 5.3%.

The producer price index released Thursday can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably healthcare and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index.

Despite the overall uptick in producer prices, Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics noted in a commentary that the components that feed into the PCE index were “universally weak" in November and make it even more likely that the Fed will cut its benchmark rate next week.

President-elect Donald Trump’s forthcoming agenda has raised concerns about the future path of inflation and whether the Fed will continue to cut rates. Though Trump has vowed to force prices down, in part by encouraging oil and gas drilling, some of his other campaign vows — to impose massive taxes on imports, for example, and to deport millions of immigrants working illegally in the United States — are widely seen as inflationary.

Still, Wall Street traders foresee a 98% likelihood of a third Fed rate cut next week, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

FILE - Coca-Cola cans move down a conveyer belt in the Swire Coca-Cola bottling plant Oct. 20, 2023, in Denver. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson, File)